Weekly Activities

The children are so excited, some of our plants are growing  They range in height from  1.5 cm to  15 cm.  The children understand that it is their responsibility to help the plants grow by watering them and ensuring that they are placed in some sunlight.  They are very proud of their efforts! Caring for the plants 15 cm tall! Measuring This week, the children discovered that seeds found in fruits come in all shapes, sizes and colours.  The children predicted how many seeds and the attributes of the seeds before we opened each fruit.  To their amazement, some fruit such as mangos only had one seed and cantaloupe had a "million." The children were very open minded and sampled pumpkin and sunflower seeds, tomato, cucumber, avocado, orange, apple and cantaloupe. The best part of this process was the eating the fruit and seeds!!! Avocado seed. Mango Trying sunflower seeds A million seeds!

They fly like helicopters. Demonstrating how sycamore seeds travel. How do seeds travel?  "By the wind" shouted Nicki. "People plant them" added Adyson. The children brainstormed but could not come up with any other ideas. After watching a video, the children learned of different ways seeds travel: animals, water, and seed explosion. The children were amazed to see seed pods explode and how far their seeds travel. The children were enthusiastic to make a poster showing the ways in which seeds travel. With pride and confidence, the children communicated their new knowledge to the rest of the class. Making the poster Adding pictures Ready to communicate 

Opening a lima bean. Opening a lima bean. Comparing seeds by shape, size and  colour. Over the course of the next few weeks,  the children will be exploring how some plants grow from seeds, how seeds travel and what is inside a seed. This week the children asked to grow their own plants.  They couldn't wait to share their knowledge about what plants need to grow: water, soil, worms, sun, and shade.  Before we could grow a plant, we needed to explore seeds. The children began by looking at lima beans and trying to open the seed coat.  The children learned that the seed coat is difficult to open because it is protecting the plant inside.  (We are germinating lima beans to to see how the plant and roots grow from the seed.) I asked the children what they thought a seeds from specific plants would look like before showing them.  Most of the children thought the colour of the seeds would be the s...

Assessing prior knowledge. Looking for collage items.  As you know, our new unit has begun.  This week we began by collecting information from the children as to what they already know and what they want to learn about plants. We continued with sorting items into living and nonliving categories.  The more we did the activity, the more excited the children became.  Rather than sort the items I provided, they began to look around the daycare for other living and nonliving items to identify. We went for a walk in the forest to collect items for a collage.  Prior to the walk, we compiled a list of things we might see or hear on our walk.  The items ranged from dirt, rocks,  and trees to racoons and bears.  After the walk, we made another list of what we saw to draw comparisons.  One item that the children found in the forest that was not on their list was garbage!  The children were upset that a bag of garbage was thrown into the ...